Mujahid and her family moved into Slottman dorm in UC Berkeley's Unit 1 residence hall three years ago. This week, more than 1,100 new neighbors joined them.

It's not that Mujahid is nostalgic for life among half-grown hordes who thrive on energy drinks, thumping music, cheap food and other shareable fare. Nor is she a lab rat testing the limits of tolerance.

Mujahid and four other brave professors constitute Cal's Resident Faculty program, created to humanize the intimidating figures at the lectern.

"We eat in the dining commons as a family a couple of times a week," Mujahid said. "It allows students to see us as people."

That's a big deal at the huge brain factory that is Cal. Nearly 36,000 students want to make the best of their experience, and connecting with professors can help.

"For most freshmen coming from high school, faculty can be very daunting," said Marty Takimoto, a director in student services.

Benefiting students, faculty

An alumnus, Takimoto remembers taking a sociology class with Professor Harry Edwards, who helped organize the famous "human rights salute" at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City in which U.S. medalists held their black-gloved fists high during the national anthem.

"As an undergraduate, it was very intimidating for me," Takimoto said. "I had what I thought were stupid questions and had to work up the nerve to go see him.

"But if I'd seen him going to the shower in his sweats, well, that's one reason we created the Resident Faculty program in 2005."

Justine Yu, 18, just moved into Slottman and hasn't met Mujahid yet.

"Is she the one with the kids?" Yu asked.

Like other students, Yu said she liked the idea of a professor in the residence hall. "I'd definitely talk with her. Why not? I think it's pretty cool."

Yet Mujahid sees the program as an opportunity not just for students, but for herself and her family.

"My dad was in graduate school at the University of Michigan, so I grew up on campus," Mujahid said. "I soaked up that climate of learning, and I wanted the same experience for my children."

It's already happening.

Arayah, 13, plays the clarinet in practice rooms and hangs out with music students.

"She loves it," said Mujahid. "And it gives her cool points" at high school.

Maya, 4, walks up to students in Slottman and says, "Hi! Where are you going? Why's your hair messy? When are we gonna dance again?" Mujahid laughed. "They're there for her entertainment."

Her husband, Raymond Fleming, 38, is a high school athletic director. Dorm living "makes what I do more real for him," Mujahid said. "It's a nice way for us to have things to do together."

Resident faculty are expected to organize programs, such as movie nights or group exercise, and get an office at the residence hall to meet with students.

Marking 8 years in dorm

Mujahid lives in a concrete-walled corner suite of three narrow dorm rooms off a living room. It has a kitchen, 1.5 baths, and a bicycle-filled patio behind a second, private entrance.

Rent is free.

The downside? There's no long-distance, cable is restricted to the university's channel, and a disproportionate chance exists that after a football game some drunken reveler will relieve himself against the window. This happened not once but twice to professors in the dorms.

"You have to love students," Mujahid said.

George Chang does - especially relishing opportunities to tease them when they do dumb things.

Like the time he heard water against the glass. He went outside and saw a student urinating while another snapped a photo.

"Cherish this moment," he told them. "You've just pissed on the professor's window."

At 71, Chang, an associate professor emeritus of nutritional science and toxicology, was the first professor to live in a dorm. Now he and his wife, Abby Jang, are preparing to leave Towle Hall next spring after eight years.

'Papers With the Prof'

Creativity has been his hallmark. When he noticed, for example, that students often sat alone in the dining hall, he began marking up newspapers of all kinds with provocative comments and invited students to discuss the news. "Papers With the Prof" remains a hit. And more than 4,400 students have joined his Facebook group, "Study Tips and Other Good Things."

Faculty interested in dorm living must explain their interest in writing and be interviewed by students and staff.

Resident faculty include Genaro Padilla, an English professor; Malo Hutson, an assistant professor of city and regional planning; and Na'ilah Suad Nasir, chair of African American studies.

Nasir, 41, and her husband, Baayan Bakari, 41, were living in a large home in Point Richmond with their four children when Nasir learned of the program in 2010. Bakari encouraged her to consider it.

"He pointed out how much I seem to enjoy and be energized by freshmen," said Nasir, who works mainly with graduate students. "So in some ways it was a no-brainer."

Then she saw the dorm. "This is going to be very bad," she thought. "My kids will hate me."

Her eldest, Leya, was leaving for college, and daughters Ase and Sajdah were excited to get their own rooms.

Oops.

"But they appreciate being on campus," Nasir said, though her window was one mistaken for a urinal. Yet "that leads to conversations about sensible alcohol consumption," she said.

Nasir and Mujahid agree that living in the dorm forces them out of the ivory tower.

While pregnant with Jackson, her 9-month-old, Mujahid offered a yoga class and found herself huffing and puffing, swollen feet visible to all.

"That's hard for a professor because you want to be in control and be respected," she said. "You have to allow yourself to be vulnerable."

Nasir learned that lesson last year when she became department chair.

"I was terrified. I hadn't done administrative work, and I felt I might be in over my head," she said.

Then a group of students who had lived in her building the year before left notes on her door.

"They said, 'We support you. Whatever you need, we have your back,' " Nasir said. "They said they wanted to reciprocate the support they'd felt from me."